Physical local area networks (LANs) are networks of physical network devices (e.g., computers, servers, switches, etc.) located within a same area. The physical network devices within a particular physical LAN are connected to each other by a physical switch device via a plurality of physical ports on the physical switch. Thus, the physical network devices can send data communications (e.g., packets) to each other via the physical switch. The physical switch enables packet routing between the physical network devices and also prevents packet collisions from occurring. Multiple LANs are connected to each other via multiple physical switches.
A network manager may logically segment the physical LANs into virtual LANs (VLANs) by using software hosted by one or more of the physical network devices in the physical LANs. For example, the physical network devices (e.g., physical servers) may host multiple “virtual” network devices and “virtual” switches. Thus, the virtual network devices can send and receive data communications with one another within VLANs associated with the virtual network devices and the virtual switches. For example, packets may be sent between physical servers that host the virtual network devices via the physical ports of the physical switch connected to the physical servers. When a large number of VLANs are deployed, however, the physical ports of the physical switch may be overloaded and data communications between virtual network devices in the VLANs may be interrupted.